The pan-blue camp sought yesterday to use its muscle in the legislature to order a new election.
The rival camps in the legislature had agreed to negotiate on amendments to the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
But the blue camp introduced into the proposed amendments a "harm article" that states if any candidate in a presidential election is harmed or killed within seven days ahead of the election, the vote should be called off and a re-election held in three to six months of an investigation report being released.
The pan-blue camp said the investigation should be conducted by a special committee formed by the legislature. The legislature would invite experts to join the committee and offer a report to the legislature within two months after the incident occurs, according to the proposal.
Caucuses had reached a consensus that the amendments should be applied retroactively to Saturday's election.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said it opposed the harm article.
"If that article gets passed, then that means when Vice President Annette Lu (
"If the pan-blue camp is proposing to pass this article, they might as well add an extra article in the law regulating that [KMT Chairman] Lien Chan (
Tsai added that, if the controversial article is passed, a party trailing in the polls ahead of an election could harm its own candidates to give it three to six months to regroup.
DPP Legislator Chiu Tai-san (
The legislature is slated to take up the amendments today after four different versions of the amendments went through an extra session of the Procedure Committee yesterday.
The amendments are unlikely to pass today if inter-party negotiations fail.
The extra session of the Procedure Committee was called yesterday to deal with the "harm article" after KMT caucus whip Liao Feng-te (廖風德) made the request to Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
Four different versions of the amendments are before the committee -- one by the pan-blue caucuses, one by the People First Party caucus, one by the DPP caucus and one by DPP Legislator You Ching (
All versions propose that when the gap between the two leading candidates in the election is less than 1 percent of the total ballots, a recount may be called.
With the exception of the blue-camp's proposal, the versions state that the request for a recount must be made within seven days of the election.
The PFP version -- unlike the other three versions which say the CEC should take charge of the recount -- states that the recount should be conducted by the judiciary.
The PFP version also states that the CEC cannot announce the winning candidates before the recount is finished.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
RSS